Investing in Rare Earths

Not as volatile as gold and silver and much healthier than bonds, stocks and shares, REE are a great investment for the discerning investor seeking something more stable yet highly valuable and in demand.

Rare Earths come under the umbrella of Strategic Critical Minerals.

Strategic Critical Minerals (SCM)

Strategic Critical Materials are those minerals that are highly sought after in industry, electronics and the auto field and without which many devices could not operate including planes, cars, TVs, mobile phone in fact practically anything manufactures has one strategic critical element or another.

Included in SCMs are the Rare Earth Elements (REE) also. There rarity of these is in the distribution of them on the planet and the cost of extraction but also the fact that China has a near monopoly on them and their criticalness to the electronics, military and other areas of industry make them an excellent target for private investors if they could only get their hands on them.

SCMs include such minerals as antimony, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium and tungsten as well as the rare Earth Elements.

Rare Earth Elements

Rare earths are really rare at all. Most of them (with the exception of the radioactive promethium) are quite plentiful in the earths crust but they are spread out so thinly that it is very difficult to mine them economically.

The main rare earths are:

Lanthanum Oxide

Cerium Oxide

Neodymium Oxide

Praseodymium Oxide

Samarium Oxide

Dysprosium Oxide

Europium Oxide

Terbium Oxide

These are used in various industrial and technological areas such as:

Cobalt Lithium-ion batteries, synthetic fuels

Gallium Thin layer photovoltaics, IC, WLED

Indium Displays, thin layer photovoltaics

Tantalum Powder capacitors, medical technology

Antimony ATO, micro capacitors

Germanium Fibre optic cable, IR optical technologies

Platinum (PGM) Fuel cells, catalysts

Palladium (PGM) Catalysts, seawater desalination

Niobium Micro capacitors, ferroalloys

Neodymium Permanent magnets, laser technology

The Rare Earth Elements (REE) A number of critical applications

In addition China is holding on to what she has got for her own use.

REEs have been on a rising trend for several years and with the continued expansion of the industrial and technological arenas looks set to continue being in great demand for many years to come.

Only recent has it become possible for the individual investor, as well as institutions even, to obtain a selection of ‘baskets’ of rare earth and strategic critical elements.

These can be purchased and are stored in a secure ultra secure vault, operated by Zurcher Freilager AG who have been in operation since 1923. Its majority stock holder is AXA & Winterhur; one of the most distinguished financial institutions in Europe.

The vault is located within the Entrepot, a tax and duty free zone where your metal assets can be stored without any time limit and the metals can be resold and converted into cash at any time, although a minimum 5 year commitment is highly recommended.